Author
Topic: Plastic drone frame (Read 2169 times)

I just got a supplemental catalogue from Brushy Mountain, and there's a "plastic drone frame" as one of the featured items. It says, "Put one in each colony and reduce your mites naturally by removing and freezing." Does anyone have any experience with this to say how well it works? I had never seen this before and had never heard anyone mention it.

You can get the same effect by placing an empty frame (no foundation) in the middle of the hive tight between 2 brood frames. The bees will fill it all up with drone brood. Once it is mostly capped, freeze and return it.

The tricky part is getting them at the right time to freeze... a little early and they won't be capped, therefore no mites trapped...a little late and you have a bunch of extra drones.

The nice thing about using a foundationless frame is that you can also cut out the drone brood and use for fishing bait if you want to.

Hey there, new beek here and I use them in both my hives, I run with double brood chambers.Initially, the bees drew the foundation out and filled it with honey, like any other frame ... so that had me concerned. I have them placed in position #4. Shortly afterwards, I noticed the one in the bottom brood chamber were now full of brood, at this point I was inspecting my hives every week, so I knew when that brood occurred. I pulled them after 21days, froze them for two days and then reinstalled them. I dropped the drone frames that were in the top chamber into the emply slot in the bottom and will basically rotate those frames in that manner. After frozen, I did inspect the brood but found no mites! If one does the count should be very low given that these were new nucs and would have been treated prior to me getting them. I also use screened bottom boards as well ... I don't want to regularly treat with chemicals for mites, and don't seen the need using this intergrated pest management tools). Just ensure you pull your frames around day 21, if not you just increased your mite load!

You can get the same effect by placing an empty frame (no foundation) in the middle of the hive tight between 2 brood frames. The bees will fill it all up with drone brood. Once it is mostly capped, freeze and return it.

The tricky part is getting them at the right time to freeze... a little early and they won't be capped, therefore no mites trapped...a little late and you have a bunch of extra drones.

The nice thing about using a foundationless frame is that you can also cut out the drone brood and use for fishing bait if you want to.

Rick

And mites! :shock:

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

Logged

"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may remember,involve me and I'll understand" Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/